Conducting Polymers Nanostructures for Solar‐Light Harvesting

The concept of visible-light-driven photocatalytic activity permits more efficient use of solar energy and continues to attract scientific community for sustainable solutions to many environmental issues. Conducting polymer nanostructures possess a high electrical conductivity, large surface area, short path length for ion transport, and a large absorption enhancement, and the possibility to tailor the morphology makes them excellent candidates for energy conversion applications. As an alternative to conventional catalytic materials such as TiO2 , one-dimensional PDPB polymer nanostructures show high photocatalytic activity under visible light for the degradation of pollutants without the assistance of sacrificial reagent or precious metal cocatalyst. Conducting polymer nanofibers offer the perspective of development of a new generation of efficient photocatalysts, which can be reused after repeated cycling without appreciable loss of activity for environmental protection. The emerging understanding of the mechanism as well as novel metal-free materials should show the promise to fulfillment for real-life applications in near future. Moreover, conducting polymers have the unique feature of hybridization with other classes of nanostructures (e.g., semiconductors nanoparticles) to generate novel hybrid nanocomposites with multifunctional properties. In this chapter, recent examples of the design of polymer nanostructure, the sensitization of semiconductor oxides catalysts, and hybrid nanocomposites will be reviewed, highlighting the physicochemical properties of the modified photocatalysts and the mechanisms involved in the transformation of pollutants.